The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

The Resilient Kashmiris!

(“The country of Kashmir may be conquered by
the force of spiritual merit, but not by the force of soldiers!” Kalhana)

Recently the Army
Chief challenged Kashmiri militants saying that they cannot get Azaadi as they
cannot fight his Army. "I
want to tell Kashmiri youth that Azaadiisn't possible. It won't happen. Why are you picking up
weapons? We will always fight those who seek Azaadi, those who want to secede. (Azaadi) is not going to happen, never.” It seemed odd that the Chief of
the third largest Army in the world with thousands of tanks, guns rockets and
even nuclear weapons having almost a million troops in Kashmir is getting upset
with a couple of hundred teenagers, mostly untrained and ill-equipped.
Probably, he is facing a strange kind of Guerrilla War in Kashmir which has no
parallel! A few armed teenagers are being protected by thousands of unarmed
civilians at the cost of their lives. In
every army operation, the civilians try to protect or help militants to escape
who probably visit these houses to have a meal! Due to this civilian
interference in military operations, there are more civilian casualties than
those of the militants! Incidentally, in an earlier column the fight was
likened to the biblical episode of David versus Goliath. On this a friend had
remarked that in the end it is David who wins the fight!

Earlier the General
had said that neither the militants nor the Army can solve Kashmir problem
through violence. Well, that is really true; the General had, in fact, spoken
the truth. Violence begets violence and no issue can be resolved by mindless
violence. Ultimately, it is an unconditional and open dialogue which solves all
issues. As regards the persistence of violence even after huge losses, it is
the genetic resilience of the Kashmiri. Historically, Kashmiri has always been
a resilient person. Dictionary meaning of the word “Resilient” is: “a person able to withstand or recover quickly from
difficult conditions”. Tyndale
Biscoe in his book, “Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade” observes that the amount of
oppression Kashmiris have undergone over the ages, if the British had faced the
same, they would have lost their manhood!

This resilience is
actually the survival instinct of a Kashmiri. For over last four centuries,
they have been oppressed by Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs and Dogras. They were
reduced to virtual wretches and lost all their good qualities. They did rebel
to change their destiny many times but failed. The main misfortune of the
people has been their betrayal by their own kinsfolk. There have been and there
continue to be “Black sheep” within the Kashmir society ready to sell even
their mothers for a price. All the foreign oppressors got a foot hold because
of these local collaborators. The external oppressors always scout for ready
collaborators by patronising the weaknesses of character in a person. They
bring out the worst and suppress the good qualities. During last 70 years
people on both sides of the divide have exploited the weaknesses of the
Kashmiri character to keep them in perpetual subjugation.

In recent years, the
worst suppression was during the turmoil of the nineties of the last century.
There were massacres, rapes, virtual kidnappings and the population faced
probably the worst trauma in their lives. Such a brutal treatment can reduce
any people to worst form of depression and despondency. The people were truly
traumatised. In fact, the teams of “Doctors without Borders” (Medicins Sans
Frontiere) that visited Kashmir after the turmoil of nineties reported that
almost every second Kashmiri is facing a psychological trauma. Their
counsellors did try to help by touring and interacting with the people in
different parts of the valley. In fact, the well-known local Psychiatrist Dr.
Mushtaq Margoob to help the people overcome the trauma started a counselling
project, “Rainbow in Haze from Canada to Kashmir”. It was conducted with the
Canadian assistance. The district Ganderbal was taken as a pilot district. They
did achieve a considerable success in normalising the traumatised people. They
had intended to take up many more districts. However, the attitude of the Delhi
rulers and their collaborators from 2014 onwards has eliminated every need of
counselling or treatment. The people, because of their inherent resilience seem
to have overcome all the traumas and are out on the roads everywhere to face
even the bullets!

In the turmoil of
nineties, people were very much scared of the gun. During any encounter or even
cordon and search, they would immediately leave the area to save themselves. No
one could even think of defying restrictions or curfews. However, the situation
is totally changed now. The fear of the gun is totally gone. During any
encounter or cordon and search, the people instead of running away, try to
storm the area to afford militants a chance to escape. Many times the militants
trapped in a cordon and search operation have been successful in making good
their escape because of the people rushing in large numbers towards the site.
As a result a large number of civilians have either been killed or injured in
these operations. Apart from the fact that the people have overcome the trauma
of fear, they appear to have developed extreme alienation from the mainstream.
As one journalist has put it, they were earlier anti-Indian but now they hate
India! Even the veteran politician Yeshwant Sinha has opined that India has
lost Kashmir emotionally! The present possession is physical only. How long can
one keep physical possession without emotional involvement? The only way to
involve people emotionally is to cease all violent action on all sides and
start an honest unconditional dialogue. It is impossible to physically
obliterate a whole nation by military force. Hitler could not do it with Jews
in spite of killing six million of them! On the contrary his Third Reich
disappeared and he committed suicide in an underground bunker! Here, one would
like to repeat Kalhana’s saying about Kashmir and Kashmiris. “The country of Kashmir may be conquered by
the force of spiritual merit, but not by the force of soldiers!” So the sooner
the spiritual side is taken up, the better for one and all!